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Ken Levine Talks BioShock Infinite and Promoting Games

One thing we talk about a lot here on GamerSushi is the gaming hype cycle, the constant stream of pre-release materials that we get inundated with before launch. We’ve constantly tried to avoid being buried by weekly dev diaries and all that other stuff, but what do people inside the industry think?

Penny-Arcade’s new gaming news site The PA Report sat down with developer luminary Ken Levine to talk about BioShock Infinite and the way that the game is being promoted before release.

Ken got pretty candid at some parts, pointing out that Infinite was revealed before he thought it was ready, so he had to get out ahead of all the marketing in order to insure that people got their first glimpse of the game in the right context.

There’s also a lot of talk about the drip-feeding of short videos every week and the article brings up the “Heavy Hitters” video segments which highlights a new enemy every week. Even though the hardcore gamer can get frustrated with seeing this stuff all the time, Ken Levine says that he trusts the auidence to be able to filter this for themselves.

It’s an interesting article and I suggest you give it a read. What do you guys think of this? I know we’ve talked about this a few times, but this is the first occasion I’ve seen of a guy on the inside opening up about this and letting us know how he feels. Go ahead, comment!

I love Ken Levine. He’s one of the most enjoyable people to listen to in the Games industry. I’ve been steering clear of virtually all Bioshock Infinite material. I have literally read a couple of articles from around the time when the game was announced, watched the reveal trailer and the 15 minute E3 trailer and read this interview. Apart from that I can’t recall any other info.
I mention this because he speaks of hardcore gamers filtering content that they don’t want to know. I had never even heard of these “Heavy Hitters” before this! This is the first game I’ve EVER done this much “filtering” for and I’m sure it’s entirely down to how I spoiled the “Would You Kindly” and the “Atlas/Fontaine” reveals from the original Bioshock (thanks to a post Eddy put up, lol, I’m not blaming anyone but myself btw). Those bits were great, but if I’d never heard about them, the reveal would have been more amazing than it was even when I knew about it. Here’s hoping Infinite is just as well written and executed as the first!